Archives for May 23, 2006

'“We wanted to get in there, get pucks behind their D and hit everything that moves,” Kevyn Adams said. “Our D has told us the toughest thing is going back all night and knowing you're going to get hit. So you want to make sure every chance you get, you're physical, that you have a tenacious attitude where you go on the ice and fight for every inch.”'

‘Defenseman Brian Campbell said the Sabres might have taken their opponents too lightly after winning Game 1. “Maybe we did,” Campbell said. “We won Game 1 and thought the second game was going to be easy and that we could just walk through it. … Maybe it’s a good wake-up call for us.”‘

'Carolina seemed quite capable of handling the road during the regular season. The Hurricanes won 21 games away from Raleigh, tying a franchise record; the team was fifth in road power plays at 18.8 percent (47 for 250) and tied for eighth in penalty kills (83.1 percent). They outscored opponents 141-133 on the road.'

'"Due to today's hockey game, the usual three-hour Catholic wedding ceremony will be shrunk to under one so that we may finish in time for the drop of the first puck," Monsignor William Gallagher intoned at the beginning of nuptials for Douglas Wragge and Heather Kowalewski at St. John Vianney Church in Orchard Park. In fact, the groom had been horrified to learn that the game was to begin at roughly the same time as his venture into the great institution of Holy Acrimony. "I thought we'd have to reschedule the wedding," he said.'

'…patrons have been packing the bar on game nights. “We probably get 20 or 30 people in for it,” he said. “We’ve been promoting it hard by hanging flags and flyers.” Fans have been staying to the bitter end to rally around their team. The tavern having a 12-foot big screen television doesn’t hurt.'

'I haven’t gotten that far. We haven’t gotten that far. The ceiling is still likely to cave in on us. Lucy is gonna yank that football away. Buffalo, playing the role of Charlie Brown, will whiff, flip up in the air and fall flat on our collective behinds — again. It’s probably a good thing, though. We don’t exactly have the best luck with field goals.'

'I've always found women to be the barometer of when a sports team moves from the sports pages onto the front pages…Women, much more apt to sidestep a dead horse than to beat one, find more constructive things to do when lousy teams play and only dedicate their precious time when they feel that it all might be leading somewhere special. (Sort of the way that they treat dating.)'